Dermott Hayes's Blog: Postcard from a Pigeon, page 23

10 books that will make you a better writer (and why)

Useful article for writers by Shaunta Grimes at StartupGrind

Books every fiction writer should own

By Shaunta Grimes

for StartupGrind

Last week, I wrote about 25 habits that will make you a better writer. This week, I thought — let’s dive into books. After twenty-plus years writing, I’ve collected some resources that I absolutely couldn’t do with out.

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View story at Medium.com

View story at Medium.com

Viet Thanh Nguyen: In praise of doubt and uselessness

‘Ignorance can sometimes — not always, but sometimes — be as beneficial as knowledge. Ignorance is beneficial when we are aware of it.’

 

Source: Los Angeles Times

Author: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Almost exactly 20 years ago, I arrived in Los Angeles in the month of June. I had received my doctorate from UC Berkeley in May and had turned 26 in February. That summer, I found a small apartment in Silver Lake and began preparing for a new career as a professor at USC. I look back on myself with bemusement and sympathy, for there were many things I did not know when I was 26. My naiveté protected me when I sat down to write at my small kitchen table and in that hot, stifling, first summer in Los Angeles began a short story collection. If I had known that it would take me 17 years to finish that collection, and three more years to publish it, perhaps I never would have even begun.

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Sgt. Pepper’s, revisited.

Everyone’s life has milestones like the birth of a child or the death of a parent. These are personal but there are others that resonate through everyone’s life, to one extent or another. Mine include the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Of course there have been others, like losing my virginity, the deaths of Elvis and Bob Marley and the first poem I ever wrote.

But these three – Cuba, Kennedy and The Beatles – are particularly significant because they all happened between the ages of 6 and 10. I grew up then, having learned fear from the Cuban crisis of 1962, hate and horror from the assassination of Kennedy and love and the expanse of opportunity from The Beatles.

At this point, I should warn you to brace yourselves. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released on June 1, 1967, nearly 50 years ago. Ahead of us, on the near horizon, is a commercial onslaught of all things Beatles and Pepper related, including a lavish reissue and a de-luxe edition that includes 100 minutes of studio outtakes. Beatles’ fans should note the reissue will include Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, two songs recorded during the Pepper sessions but, at the time, released as unrelated singles.

Sadly, one of the first articles I read regarding the forthcoming anniversary was an appallingly ill conceived article in the Irish Times by its film critic, Donald Clarke , titled ‘When The Beatles Got High on Pomposity.’ It garnered a justifiable torrent of abuse, in my opinion, on social networks.

When I read it, I thought it was a joke but then people called it ‘clickbait’ and I recalled how, as a former rock writer myself, it was common practice to tear down icons to make room for a new generation. What annoyed me about it though was how he missed the mark so widely. It’s badly researched, bristling with factual inaccuracy and the points it makes are so spurious they could only garner ridicule.

Donald Clarke, I’m guessing, wasn’t about for the launch of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and doesn’t understand the impact and reverberations it caused. And then, unfortunately, uses top 100 lists to justify his critique, a tactic so weak and irrelevant, it doesn’t warrant shredding.

I was 10 when The Beatles’ released Sgt Pepper’s. The first record I ever bought with my own money, earned from a newspaper round, was a four track Beatles’ For Sale ep. By 10, courtesy of my cousins and my brothers, I had embraced country and blues music. I still have the John Mayall album that features Eric Clapton reading a Beano on the cover. I was a Rolling Stone fan, too.

Sgt Pepper’s is a milestone in the history of rock music. It wasn’t a genre album nor was it derivative. It was innovative. Listening to Sgt Pepper’s in 1967 made you believe anything was possible.

Clarke’s point arises from the designation of Sgt Pepper’s as ‘the greatest LP of all time’, a subjective designation decided by rock critics or magazines of different generations. Of course, by their very nature, such designations must change and, assuredly, Sgt Pepper’s probably became a sacred cow or, in the case of Mr Clarke, a golden calf, ripe for smelting. But what he’s ignored is the impact Sgt Pepper’s had on popular music, in general, because from 1967, it became the benchmark for what could be done and opened a Pandora’s Box of what was possible.

 

OPAQUE

 

His words resounded with sincerity, they rang with meaning and truth but she knew, from bitter experience, how action’s note carries a clearer sound where light resides in transparency and lies, however attractively adorned to soothe, assuage or persuade but can never prevail and will always be revealed as opaque.

Where Have All The Heroes Gone?

They took the easter out of egg

and stripped the fair of fun

It was a committee decision

with a person in the chair

but there was no offence

and no-one left to care

They took the christ out of Christmas

Now an X marks the spot

where love was ripped away

making room for excess

and little space for play

Where have all the heroes gone?

The ones who spoke their mind.

Are they all wearing masks and capes,

out of touch with the human inside,

to hide their empty shells?

Trump’s base turns on him

Steve Bannon’s downgrade is just one of many complaints. ‘We expect him to keep his word, and right now he’s not keeping his word,’ says one campaign supporter.

By Alex Isenstadt and Madeline Conway

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The brave & brilliant world of Emily Reynolds

A series of interesting conversations with interesting people

Emily Reynolds is a London and Berlin-based journalist and author who writes about mental health, tech, science, and gender. She recently published her first book in the U.K. (coming to the U.S. in May): A Beginner’s Guide to Losing Your Mind . We caught up with her to chat about the release and what type of impact she hopes to have with her work.

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CLIMBING

 

For a moment, Victor feels comfortable, safe. So he’s in a rainforest and a deep, dark and impenetrable corner of that vast ecosystem, too, but he’s a survivor. His companions may be dead but he’s still here, alive on the lip of a pit of snakes and the water’s climbing.

CHAMPION

 

Every day he sits down and like the Haiku poetry bloggers, tries to create a story in a confined format. He uses 50 words to tell a story with meaning, infusing the readers’ minds with hints to fuel, even ignite, their imaginations. No prizes sought or expected, he is no champion.

 

CUSP

 

Bad hearing was not an asset in his line of business and most of the time he got away with visual interpretation and lip reading. But when he hesitated before making a decision, a goon giggled, mumbling. He shot him, asking what?

He said you were on the cusp.

Oh.